drawings-1

Something different for a while ~ some old drawings.
three from Sri Lanka, that's Ananda left,
& another I did in a Bangkok temple c '72.
It interests me how the forms changed as Buddhism
moved east from India, even though there were
apparently artists, stone carvers etc from very diverse
cultures, who had, for instance, moved from
the Mediterranean area to escape persecution.

always plenty of inspiration: anindiansummer
Andrew Moore's wonderful photographs

silk

In February we visited this silk factory, it was a bit like the
places 2 years before, in Vietnam, with very eager sales
people. Love the colours.

&, only tangentially related, a favourite author, William Gibson

mosaics

Had these half-ready from another project (also from
Wat Arun). Am experimenting with morphing, & it's
led to other ideas. Just the mosaic designs on their own
are really lovely of course.

bohemianhellhole & a dedicated beachcomber

before & after

Also part of another project..

When I went to Ladahk in the early '70's, there were a few
homestays & 1 star hotels after a white knuckle 2 day bus
through every kind of marvellous mountain terrain.

Now you can slip in for a few days of luxury, it seems.
I wouldn't say no!

lookouts

Two kinds of lookouts. Sparrows are everywhere I guess?
At the moment I've a pair of willy wagtails in the garden.
They watch each others backs constantly.
Isn't it strange, what shadows (or demons) we guard against?
A friend showed me photographs from Mustang, there's an old
monastery linked with Padmasmabhava, it has a long wall
painted in ochre & red stripes, said to be the entrails of the
demon that the sage defeated. High altitude ideas..

best wishes

I'd like to send a very large bunch of flower offerings
to Thailand.
No clear idea of what's really happening, was going to add
a link but then.. if our thoughts can influence how the
world is, then probably it's better to smile, wouldn't you say?

short videos of animals on guardian.co.uk

tiled

Up close, the tiles are lovely, but there's nothing like the

full size effect of a large building covered in them..

these are on one building within the compound of Wat Arun,

the temple of Dawn, in Bangkok. I've been playing with them

on a morphing program. Also sending best wishes..

Have an interesting book from the British Museum, on the

migration of pattern & ornament along the old silk roads.

These designs may have come from elsewhere (like the broken

pieces of trade plates, elsewhere) but they seem,

to me, quintessentially Thai in their confident use.